The Debt

I saw this somewhere over the weekend and I liked it so much I had to share it here.

The Federal budget explained in simple English

United States Tax Revenue:

$2,170,000,000,000

Fed budget:

$3,820,000,000,000

New Debt:

$1,650,000,000,000

National debt:

$14,271,000,000,000

Recent Budget Cut:

$38,500,000,000

Now, remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.

Annual Family Income:

$21,700

Money Family Spent

$38,200

New Debt on Credit Card:

$16,500

Outstand Credit Card Balance

$142,710

Total budget cuts some politicians are proud of:

$385

I like this because it’s simple. It’s a lot easier to understand that $385 means nothing when you’re borrowing $16,500 a year and have an outstanding debt of $142,710. I think people get caught up in how much money $38 billion is to them and don’t think about what that number represents in the totality of the budget.